CHAPTER - 7

Findings, Suggestions and Conclusion

This Chapter highlights the main findings of the study in a summarised form and
put forward the important suggestions required for further improvement based on
the major findings. At the end the investigator draws concluding remarks in the
light of these findings.

Summary of Findings

From the analyses and interpretations made in the previous chapters of this study,
the investigator has identified the following major findings.

1. Kerala is exuberantly resourceful with nature, manmade and heritage based

tourism potentials to design and develop varied handsome tour packages for
attracting almost all types of tourists to the State.
2. The tourist arrivals in the state show an increasing trend since 1996 with an
average growth rate of 6% per year, which include 12.04% in foreign tourist
arrivals and 5.04% in domestic tourists as well.
3. The foreign tourist arrivals show a maximum growth rate in 2003, i.e. 26.68%
over the previous year 2002, and the domestic tourist arrivals show an increase
of 14.28% in 2008.
4. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism in the State show a rapid growth since
2002 and it shows an average growth rate of 30.75 percent per annum.
5. Travel agents, tour operators and other tourism organisation contribute 19.79%
to the total inflows of tourist in the State through tour packages. Among them
11 out of 100 is contributed by KTDC offered tour packages alone. This
indicates that KTDC has significant role in attracting tourists to the State
through tour packages.
6. KTDC is mainly involved in running hotels, motels and resorts, wayside
amenities and Ayurveda and Yoga centres; marketing tour packages and
conducted tours; and maintaining a high tech reservation system to attract more
tourists to the state.
7. KTDC has systematically organised working structure, which shows the
hierarchy of positions and their relationship in terms of authority and
responsibility, to carry out the tourism promotional efforts and marketing
operations.
8. The working structure and overall operations analysis identified that KTDC
does not have a Public Relations Department/ Officer in its organisational
structure which is very important for a commercial organisation like KTDC in
order to support the marketing operations and functions.
9. In the absence of the Public Relations Department/ Officer, Guest relations
assistants at the various accommodation units and the marketing department of
the Corporation have been looking after this functions and operations.
10. The product mix of the Corporation for tour packages consists of Beach
packages, backwater tours, Hill Station tours, Vegetation and Wildlife
packages, Cultural and heritage packages, Ayurvedic Rejuvenation packages,
Houseboat Cruises, Pilgrim tours, and other integrated and tailor-made tour
packages, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions)
packages, family packages, honeymoon packages etc.
11. The product perspective analysis shows that KTDC has given only little space
for adventure, sports, pilgrim and wildlife tour packages compared to other
packages such as beach, backwater and Ayurveda.
12. The Corporation has been adopted different well planned strategies in different
contexts and times for marketing its different tour packages in the State.
13. The ‘quality growth model’ is the overall strategy of KTDC for marketing its
varied tour packages.
14. The other strategies which KTDC has been adopted for marketing different
tour packages in different seasons and contexts are:
• Customer/ Product oriented strategies: These include undifferentiated
(diversification) strategy and differentiated (specialisation) strategy.
• Competitor/ price oriented strategies: These consist of high pricing,
differential pricing, and demand oriented pricing.

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 • Trade/ distribution oriented strategies include both bypassing (direct
marketing) strategy and cooperative and collaborative (use of
intermediaries) strategy.
• Communication oriented/ Promotional strategies consist of regional, state
national and international level strategies.
15. The undifferentiated or diversification strategy is adopted by considering the
common interests and attitude of all segments (domestic and foreign) of tourist
markets for the entire range of tour packages of the Corporation and by
considering the seasonal factors as well.
16. The differentiation strategy is adopted with the specific intention to attract
those foreign tourists who have interested in beach tours, backwater packages
and Ayurvedic Rejuvenation packages especially during the monsoon season.
17. KTDC generally practices high price strategy for its tour packages as it has
special focus on quality matters. This policy very often staves off the common
people in attracting to the Corporation.
18. KTDC also practices differential pricing (charging different tariff for domestic
and foreign tourists) and demand oriented pricing (higher prices during peak
seasons and lower rates during off-season).
19. The Corporation has been focusing on both the distribution strategies, i.e.
bypassing (direct marketing) strategy and cooperation (through the
intermediaries) strategy simultaneously, since it has been maintaining a high
tech reservation system, well informative and user friendly website, tourist
reception centres and a wide area coverage network of intermediaries at
national and international levels.
20. The Central Reservation Cell, Tourism Reception Centres, KTDC Hotels and
Resorts, Marketing Executives and agents, the District Tourism Promotional
Councils (DTPCs), travel agencies and tour operators are the major distribution
channels of the Organisation.
21. The major promotional strategy adopted by KTDC for marketing tourism
products and tour packages in the country is the promotion of the slogan
‘Official Host to God’s Own Country’. Under this slogan the Corporation has

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 been undertaken several positively-aggressive promotional campaigns such as
Visit Kerala 2009, Grand Kerala Shopping festival 2009 etc.
22. Beyond the traditional promotional tools and techniques like brochures,
booklets, advertisements in traditional electronic and print medias etc, KTDC
also adopts the innovative techniques and strategies such as conducting road
shows, grand tourism fairs, festivals and exhibitions, participation in national
and international exhibitions and tourism marts, website advertisements, data
base marketing techniques, CD ROMs, production of advertising films etc. at
regional/ state, national and international levels.
23. As an innovative technique KTDC has adopted mobile technology marketing
through SMSs and MMs for local level promotion of tour packages. The SMSs
and MMSs are enough capable to disseminate information about the exixting
and newly added packages and products of KTDC through the small pictures
and texts.
24. ‘Word of mouth’ is the most effective technique for the promotion of tour
packages because 35.9% of the tourist came to know about KTDC’s tour
packages through their friends and relatives.
25. It is found from the survey that most of the Domestic tourists (29%) come from
the home land Kerala, 17% from Karnataka, 15% from Maharashtra, 13% from
Tamil Nadu, 7% from Gujarat, and 19% from other states of the Country.
26. The foreign tourists mainly come from England, Switzerland, Canada,
America, France, Croatia, Germany etc.
27. The results of the satisfaction survey show that more than 77% of KTDC’s
Customers are belonging to higher income groups; this indicates that pricing
strategy of the Corporation is not favourable for tourists from lower income
group.
28. It is found from the results of statistical analysis of tourists overall satisfaction
that 82.34 percent of the total tourists were satisfied, among them 22.16
percentage were highly satisfied, with the tour packages offered by KTDC.
29. The numbers of tourists who were dissatisfied is 12 (3.59%) and the tourists
who have no opinion (neither satisfied or dissatisfied) about the tour packages
is 43 (14.07%)

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30. The most important attributes which yield maximum satisfaction to both
domestic and foreign tourists are attractiveness of locations and all the
attributes under the accommodation dimension.
31. The most dissatisfying attribute for both domestic and foreign tourists is
purchasing time allowed under the dimension Shopping Arrangements.
32. It is found from the Factor analysis with Principal Component Method that the
4 factors i.e. Facilities and Comfort, Communication, Transportation & Pricing
and Attractions are the major quality and satisfaction determinants of the tour
packages of KTDC in Kerala.
33. Multiple regression analysis shows that about 94% of the variation of tourist’
overall satisfaction was explained by the four factors identified through the factor
analysis such as Facilities & Comfort, Communication, Transportation & Price
and Attraction.
34. It is found from the study that there is a significant difference between the
satisfaction level of domestic and foreign tourists. The satisfaction levels show
that 91% (9% have no opinion) of foreign tourists and 78.63% of domestic
tourists were satisfied with the tour packages offered by KTDC. But in case of
domestic tourists 16.24% were at break even and 5.13% were dissatisfied.
35. The mean score of the 12 dimensions shows their relative position in terms of
tourist satisfaction that Accommodation dimension is first, Attraction second
and Safety and Security third. Majority of tourists have no opinion and some
were dissatisfied with the ‘Shopping arrangements’ dimension and thus it has
been placed in 12th position.

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Suggestions

The study has been made the following suggestions for the further improvement of
the marketing strategies, tourists’ satisfaction and quality of its tour packages.

1. The Corporation has to develop a comprehensive master plan which must be

based on a long term basis and should be based on carefully carved out facts as
regarding the visitor motivations, their needs, requirements, satisfaction levels
and forecast in terms of numbers etc. and it must take into account all the
market forces and must be developed in a way so that it is cohesion with the
overall developmental plans and strategies.
2. The product perspective analysis shows that KTDC has given much focus on
nature based and Ayurveda packages and has given less importance for the
packages such as pilgrims, sports, adventure, wildlife, regional culture and arts,
folklore and architecture etc. Therefore, being the government agency to
promote tourism in the State, the Corporation should develop and market tour
packages to attract pilgrims, adventure and sports lovers and those who are
interested in regional culture and heritage packages as well.
3. It is clear from the survey data that more than 77% of customers of the
Corporation are belonging to higher income groups. This means that KTDC is
mainly concerned about the needs and expectations of upper class tourist but
less concerned about the lower income groups. Hence, in order to attract the
common people to the organisation, it should have to be given special focus in
developing and marketing budget packages by considering needs and
expectations of the lower income group tourists also.
4. The high and differential pricing strategies often hesitates the common people
to approach KTDC and thus stave off them from its products and services.
Therefore, in order to attract them to the Corporation, KTDC should practice
reasonable and affordable pricing policies and cost leadership strategies for its
products and services.
5. In order to get maximum markets coverage, KTDC should expand the
distribution networks by establishing new links and good relationships with
tour operator, marketing agents and other intermediaries and by appointing

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 new marketing executives and personal selling groups in both national and
international markets.
6. In order to provide special care and attention for attracting tourists to the
organisation, KTDC should establish more tourist reception and information
centres, accommodation units and helpline centres across the globe.
7. The Corporation should follow the societal marketing principles in formulating
strategies for marketing tourism products in the State. Because the strategies
often adopted by the Organisation are not in tune with principles of societal
marketing.
8. In order to establish a good relationship with tourists and the local community
and ensure the participation of local people in tourism related activities, the
Corporation should modify the organisation structure by adding a public
relations department or by creating a public relation officer’s position.
9. Implementing a professional public relations campaign can have several
benefits: it will build brand, improve the image, increase credibility and will
provide a greater return on investment than advertising alone. Public relation is
to build a brand and advertising is to maintain the position
10. Internet and IT enabled services should be used at length for marketing tour
packages and other tourism products in the state. This will be helpful and more
effective to share a wide range of information with the prospective customers
at minimum time and to substantiate online reservations.
11. Proper interlinks should be maintained between marketing strategies, vision
and mission statements, and established objectives of the organisation in order
to incorporate the marketing functions and operations as per the overall
objectives and goals of the Corporation.
12. KTDC should use ‘word of mouth marketing’ strategy effectively. This can be
done by sending monthly newsletter to the customers who enjoyed beauty of
Kerala and subscribed opt-in email. Design the newsletter with photos and
small description of latest photos of major events, cultural festivals etc. There
is a possibility that people who visited Kerala tourism destination may refer it
to their friends or relatives about Kerala Tourism.

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13. KTDC should realise the importance of front-line sales force. The front-line
employees can be the most valuable sales team. This is because they establish
the first contact with the customer.
14. The Corporation should be unique with exotic experiences and tour packages.
Because a tourist must be able to differentiate the firm from the competition
and it must strive to be creative and set itself apart from others.
15. Before going for the development, modification or diversification of any tour
packages, the Corporation must have a thorough knowledge of the prevailing
market conditions and as much they must emphatically be able to answer
questions like: who are the customers; their country, region or state of origin;
their social class, educational background and life style; amount of disposable
income available with them for travel; most appropriate time of their visit; their
age-group, gender and marital status; their motivations, likes and dislikes; their
package preferences etc.
16. Proper care should be taken to get tourists feedback about the execution of the
tour package or service, because it will be helpful to ascertain the satisfaction
levels of tourists and thus to make required modifications and improvements in
the future.
17. Even at the community level, branding is critical for success of tourism
marketing, because it is much more than just a logo or caption, it is the image
and the value. So KTDC should undertake intensive efforts for a strong brand
positioning at national and international levels.
18. There should be frequency in advertising and publicity. Because the frequency
is more important than variety in placing advertising. People viewing the
advertisement should develop Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA).
19. Distribute publicity materials regarding the tour packages at air ports, railway
stations, hotels and motels, other tourist places etc.
20. Provide high quality tour packages and other services by providing the required
facilities and promote only quality health packages in Ayurveda.
21. In order to make the packages more attractive, KTDC should organise cultural
and entertainment programmes with the participation of tourists especially
foreigners.

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22. Since Kerala consists of a large variety of resources and attractive
destinations, KTDC should be expanded the length and breadth of its product
mix by adding more attractive and variety tour packages in order to attract all
class and category of tourists.
23. Adopt a strong customer orientation which includes regular research and
assessment of their needs, wants and attitudes.
24. Allocate sufficient resources and time for marketing and regularly update a
marketing plan for tour packages and other tourism products.
25. It is intelligible from the tourist satisfaction survey that a large number of
tourists were either dissatisfied or have no opinion about the transport facilities
provided. Hence, the Corporation should give special care and attention to
improve the quality of the transport facilities to be provided. It is also
suggested that KTDC should set up own transportation system with hi-tech
facilities, since the number of tourists are increasing day by day, and thus will
be capable to provide high quality transport services.
26. The survey also shows that majority of the tourists were dissatisfied with the
shopping arrangements dimension of the tour packages. Therefore, appropriate
measures and arrangements should be taken to minimise the inconveniences
and difficulties and make shopping an exotic experience in future trips.
27. Tourism has taken initiative to markets beyond the metros to foster skilled
manpower. The rapidly growing tourism sector in Kerala is faced with an acute
shortage of talent. Hence, KTDC should be focused at developing talent by
grooming entry-level candidates and enhancing skills of existing professionals
in the Organisation which will help to improve the quality of different tourism
products and packages.
28. It has been suggested that in order to attract more and more foreign tourists,
advertisement in foreign journals, magazines and newspapers should be given
in foreign languages. Besides, translation of tourist’s literature in foreign
language through different agencies in another positive steps in this direction.
29. Since Kerala tourism had partnered with Indian Airlines and arranged Kerala
cuisine and celebrated “Festival of Kerala”. It would be advisable to distribute

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 tourism marketing brochures and digital contents in major Airlines in Europe
and India.
30. A quality control program which focuses on improving both the technical
quality (the standards associated with what the tourist receives) and the
functional quality (the standards associated with how the tourist receives the
service) should be carried on from time to time.
31. Communication should be speedy and widespread. Good communication is
vital in tourism because it can retain existing customers, attract new customer,
increase brand awareness, built business, reduce their perceived risk and gain
the trust of their customers through proper communication networks and
promotional campaigns.
32. For many destinations and packages tourists and local peoples’ attitude and
behaviour often fall into the category of tourist experiences or products, since
tourist may be attracted by the culture and hospitality of the resident
population. Hence, the importance of fostering local residents’ sensitivity and
awareness is to be stressed by organising tourism awareness programmes and
campaigns, because inappropriate behaviour of such people can reduce the
quality of products or packages.

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Conclusion
In the globalised scenario, since tourism is widely recognised as one of the most
vibrant, growing and economically useful activities in the world, competitions
among the global players of tourism related service industries are unavoidable.
Competition is increasing day by day since more and more countries seek to attract
tourists and more companies and organisations become involved in the highly
skilled business of transporting, accommodating, sightseeing of attractions and
catering for tourists. In order to get a big market share different travel companies
and tourism organisations were adopted various innovative as well as competitive
tourism marketing methods. The concept of tour package is one among such
innovative marketing methods adopted by several organisations across the globe.
At present it has become a major contributing factor to the growth of tourism in
India as well as worldwide. The increasing growth of tourist inflows in Kerala is
also greatly influenced by the tour packages conducted by Kerala Tourism
Development Corporation and other different tourism organisations in the state. It
can be intelligible from the survey results of this study that tourism organisations in
Kerala contribute 19.79 percent of the total inflow of tourist in the State by way of
tour packages. Among them 11 out of 100 is contributed by KTDC alone.

Kerala, the ‘God’s Own Country’, is exuberantly resourceful with beaches,

backwaters, rivers, hill stations, vegetations, wildlife, holy places, historical
monuments, architecture, arts and culture, folk-lore, festivals, Kalaripayattu (the
martial art), Kettuvalums (houseboats) cruise, Ayurveda, yoga and meditations,
Kerala cuisine etc., These abounding resources made the state as one of the most
attractive destinations in Asia and capable to develop and market varied attractive
tour packages in order to approximate more and more tourists to the state. Kerala
Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC), the government agency to promote
tourism in the State, has been engaged in conducting many attractive tour packages,
readymade as well as tailor made, along with other tourism promotional activities
such as construction of hotels, motels, resorts and wayside amenities; developing
and marketing conducted tours; maintaining hi-tech central reservation cell; and

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conducting fairs, festivals exhibitions etc to promote tourism in the so called state
‘God’s Own Country’.

Even though KTDC does not have a public relations department or public relation
officer it has a very systematic organisational structure to undertake tourism
promotional efforts and marketing functions in the State. The organisation structure
analysis shows that marketing department is capable enough to formulate and
implement the marketing strategies for varied tour packages in accordance with
vision, mission and strategic objectives of the organisation. The marketing mix and
the marketing strategies analysis reveal that KTDC has been adopted ‘quality
growth model’ as the overall marketing strategy for tour packages. The other
strategies have been adopted by the Corporation include differentiation and
diversification (undifferentiated) strategies, high price and differential pricing
strategies, bypassing (direct marketing) and co-operation (use of intermediaries)
strategies, and promotional strategies at regional, national and international levels.

The Corporation has been adopted undifferentiated (diversification) strategy for its
varied packages since it is developing and marketing such packages by considering
the common interests, taste and expectations of every tourist/ market segment.
Similarly, the differentiated strategy is adopted to allure a particular segment of
tourist especially foreigners who have specially interested in beach and backwater
tours and Ayurveda packages. Although it has often adopted differential or demand
oriented pricing strategy, KTDC generally practices high price strategy since it is
more concerned in maintaining the quality of tour packages and tourism products.
This strategy often staves off the common people from the Corporation and thus
attracts only upper class tourists. It is evident from the satisfaction survey result that
77.8% of the tourists approaching KTDC for its packages are from higher income
groups.

KTDC has a strong base for undertaking direct marketing efforts and a world-wide
distribution network of intermediaries for tour packages and other products. Hence,
it has given equal prominence to both bypassing (direct marketing) and cooperation
strategies for distribution. The promotional tools and techniques include conducting
road shows, fairs, exhibitions and grand festivals at regional and national levels;

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advertisements in print and electronic medias, own websites and other internet
sources; participation in national and international fairs and exhibitions; traditional
promotional tools such as brochures, booklets, pamphlets etc; data base marketing
techniques; and CD ROMs, production of tourism films, video clips, use of mobile
technology through SMSs, MMSs etc. Although KTDC has undertaken several
positively aggressive promotional efforts and strategies at national and international
levels, the survey result shows that Word of mouth’ is the most effective technique
because 35.9% of the tourist came to know about KTDC’s tour packages through
friends and relatives. The marketing agents and intermediaries (29.3%) and
KTDC’s own website (18%) also play a crucial role in disseminating information
about KTDC’s tour packages among the tourists.

The result of the tourist satisfaction survey shows that 82.34 % were satisfied,
3.59% were dissatisfied and 14.07% have no opinion with the quality of packages
offered by the Corporation. Although the Mann-Whitney test of statistical analysis
shows a significant difference between the satisfaction levels of foreign and
domestic tourists, the mean scores of the attributes and dimensions show that both
the tourists were almost satisfied with the packages. They were neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied with only one dimension, i.e. shopping arrangements. The factor
analysis with principal component method and multiple regression analysis
extracted four major factors which explain about 94% of total variation of tourists
overall satisfaction and thus determine the quality of tour packages. Such factors
include Facilities and comfort (factor 1), Communication (factor 2), Transportation
and price (factor 3), and Attractions (factor 4).

However, it can be concluded from the overall analyses and evaluations that KTDC
has adopted different well structured marketing strategies and techniques for tour
packages in Kerala along with the ‘Quality Growth Model’ as the overall strategy.
The Corporation has a scientific organisational structure with a red-blooded
marketing department in order to carry out marketing functions and promotional
efforts. But the organisation structure does not consists a public relations
department or public relations officer which is very import for a commercial
organisation like KTDC for the effective marketing of tour packages and other

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tourism services or products. It is evident from the results of the satisfaction survey
that the tour packages offered by the organisation possess much better quality;
hence almost all the tourists were satisfied with the quality of packages. Similarly it
can be interpreted from the differences in satisfaction levels of domestic and
foreign tourists that KTDC has offered low quality packages for Indian tourists as
compare to the packages offered to foreign tourists. The result of statistical analyses
also shows four major factors that are very import in determining the overall
satisfaction of tourist and the quality of tour packages. Therefore, this study
suggested that the Corporation should be given special focus on these factors to
improve the quality of its varied tour packages and should give special care for
improving the shopping arrangements dimension (variable), since majority of the
tourists were dissatisfied or have no opinion on this dimension. It is also suggested
that KTDC should follow societal marketing principles in formulating and
implementing different marketing policies and strategies, especially pricing and
promotional strategies, for tour packages.

Hence, to sum up, it can be rightly said from the previous discussions, empirical
analyses and critical evaluations that KTDC has very clear and well planned
strategies for marketing its varied tour packages in the state of Kerala. The
scientifically organised structure of the Corporation, with a very good marketing
department consisting of a dedicated team of employees, is very supportive in
formulating and implementing timely policies and strategies to carry out marketing
operations for tour packages and other tourist’s products and services. This helped
the Organisation to contribute much to the tourists’ inflows in the state by means of
tour packages and conducted tours. Although there exists significant difference
between the satisfaction levels of domestic and international tourists, almost both
the category of tourists were satisfied with the tour packages offered by KTDC.
From this, it is clear that the quality of the tour packages offered by the Corporation
is possessing higher standards as they demanded and it is also clear that ‘quality
growth model’ is the overall marketing strategy of Kerala Tourism Development
Corporation. Therefore, since the study could not find any supporting evidences for
any of the three hypotheses formulated in the initial phase of study, they were not
accepted.

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Directions for Future Researches
The present study is provided a general picture of the performance and resource
potential (with regard to the attraction dimension) of Kerala Tourism Industry, and
the working structure and overall operations of Kerala Tourism Development
Corporation. It critically analysed and evaluated the marketing strategies adopted
by KTDC for its varied tour packages offered in Kerala and the satisfaction levels
of both domestic and foreign tourists with the tour packages in State offered by the
Corporation.

However, the study did not analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of the each
strategies adopted by the Organisation for marketing its varied tour packages in the
State, the marketing strategies adopted for other tourism products and services,
tourists loyalty intentions, and the attitude and perception of tourists towards the
tour packages offered by KTDC. The study also did not mention the relationship
between tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty intension to revisit any of the destinations
in Kerala with KTDC’s tour packages, because repeat visitation is an important
issue for tourism marketers and researchers. Therefore, future researches should
investigate the effectiveness of the marketing strategies adopted by KTDC for
varied tour packages, the strategies adopted by the Organisation for marketing other
tourism products and services, tourists’ loyalty intensions with the Corporation,
attitude and perception of tourists towards the tour packages offered by KTDC in
Kerala, and the relationship between tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty intension to
revisit any of the destinations in Kerala with KTDC’s tour packages. Further
studies could be applied similar research method to other tourism organisations and
travel agencies who are organising and marketing tour packages in Kerala or in
other states of India so that a competitive analysis in different organisations can be
explored.

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